Kumo no Mukou, Keitaro
by SK-superpower
Summary: Keitaro gets drafted into the JSDF as a war erupts within Japan. Will Keitaro still love Naru with the seperation, or will he find somebody else he love even more? Modern Day I haven't picked out the pairings, so reader's comments will choose!
1. Drafted into the JSDF

DISCLAIMER: I don't own _Love Hina_ nor _The Place Promised in Our Early Days_. These are owned by Ken Akamatsu and Makoto Shinkai, respectively. I only own most of my internal organs that I possess.

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_Kumo__ no Mukou, Keitaro  
By SK-superpower  
  
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_Author's Note: _My second story ever! Anything that you might not understand will be included in the ending notes (at the end of the chapter, for those who don't know) and feel free to ask any questions. PLEASE READ & REVIEW! _"__Kumo__ no Mukou, Keitaro"_ roughly translates to "Beyond the Clouds, Keitaro".

This is a _Love Hina_ and _Kumo__ no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho_ (_The Place Promised in Our Early Days_) crossover. If you haven't watched _Kumo__ no Mukou_, WATCH IT! It rates as the number one anime movie in my list. Makoto Shinkai is an amazing man that many people believe to be the next Hayao Miazaki, also watch his 30 minute movie _Hoshi__ no Koe_ (_Voice of a Distant Star_) that he created and rendered both 2D and 3D CG all on his PowerMac G4 (400 MHz) by himself! (For those who want to know what's number on in my anime series list, it's _Last Exile_)

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**Chapter One:**

Keitaro could hear a machine gun in the distance firing. A few tracers from the weapon could be seen in the night sky.

_rat __tata__atatat__tatat__tata__tata___

He was squashed in his foxhole, sharing it with a soldier that got lost from another platoon when the invasion began. Water was dripping into the foxhole, there was a small puddle forming at the bottom. Artillery could be heard firing in the far distance.

Keitaro felt as long as he was in his foxhole, he was safe. Safe from the pain of watching other people die, safe from the pain of being wounded, safe from the torture of killing someone.

A noise could be heard outside.

Keitaro called out the signal word to the intruder, "_Faia_" (Fire). He waited for the response, "_Kemuri_" (Smoke), but it never came. Being as nervous and anxious as he was, Keitaro groped in the dark for his rifle. He felt part of the stock of his assault rifle, but it was currently buried under some dirt, it probably got buried under some loose dirt after the rain fell.

Keitaro got out his officer's pistol from his side holster as quietly as he could, and peeked out of his foxhole. Once again, he said "_Faia_." He was rewarded with a cicaida buzzing on a tree, one of the few trees left in his area due to the fire bombing.

The former ronin decided it was just a fox or some other animal, looking for food. He leaned back into his foxhole and closed his eyes. Trying to bring back memories of his past, before the whole war with the North started.

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/Starting Flashback Sequence\  
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_  
_"Be careful Keitaro!"  
"Bye Urashima-sempai!"  
"Make yourself a real man for once, Urashima."  
"The uniform makes you look sexy!"  
"Bring me back some bananas!"  
"See ya Keitaro!"

Keitaro waved back at the voices in the taxi. He smiled, but felt sad inside. He didn't know how long he would be gone. A month? 3 months? A year? The taxi was beginning to feel a bit more uncomfortable and he shifted around in his seat for a bit.

The JSDF draft got him, when he got the letter he didn't know what to do. The residents of Hinata Sou took it well, sort of. Of course there was some crying, tears were shed and then hugs exchanged after his announcement. He didn't know what he was assigned to, maybe as a supply person or something non-threatening to his life. How wrong he was.

When he arrived at the camp, he was instructed by a sergeant to state his name, purpose for being there, and to give any identification he had. Keitaro did so, and the officer stared at him for a moment. Then he saluted and said "Welcome to Kanto Japanese Self Defence Force Base 246! Sir!"

Keitaro, unaccustomed to the military practices, wasn't sure of what to do. He said, "Umm, eto, thanks. But do you know where I should go?"

"Go down that path and enter the building marked '46'." The sergeant replied with a strange look on his face.

"_Arigatou_"

Keitaro walked down the gravel path, his feet crunching on the loose pockets. Little did he know that he and his explosives team would be blowing up buildings and bridges, people being crushed by chunks of rock and building material.

He entered the building with a large "46" spray painted on the right side of its door. Obviously meant for security, there was a retina scanner above where the door handle should have been. Not knowing what to do, he looked into the retina scanner and almost jumped out of his pants when it said in a robotic tone "_Urashima__, Keitaro. Rank: Second Lieutenant. Permission to enter granted._"

'_How did it know my name? And since when was I a second Lieutenant?_' He thought. The door clicked and swung open. Keitaro apprehensively walked inside and saw a group of people sitting down in front of a few large LCD displays that showed weapons, maps, and other information he couldn't see from his viewpoint.

Everybody in the room turned around to look at him. The speaker rose his head and said, "Good to see you Urashima-san. Please take a seat and listen closely, you may put your belongings beside you. This is orientation about you and your only current purpose. To serve the Republic of Japan."

Slightly confused, Keitaro took a seat in the second row and set his belongings beside him. The speaker was apparently a Colonel from his insignia, he looked around his middle 30s with a slightly receding hairline. He was a tad bit shorted than Keitaro, but much more intimidating. He resumed speaking.

"You understand that your mission is to win the war, no matter what the cost. Your secondary missions are to kill the enemy, disrupt the enemy, and make sure that the enemy is as scared as hell. You are the 513th Demolition Group of the JSDF. You have been specifically selected from your other brothers because of skill and endurance you have shown in your civilian lives. To tell you the truth, some of you have been under surveillance to be selected since you were 14."

Now Keitaro was getting a bit worried. He looked around the room, there were some guys that looked like they were pumping iron their whole lives, there were some guys who looked like nerds just like them. All of them pretty much had a worried look in their eyes when the colonel said those words, except one man. He looked like he was in his late 20s, a leader, strong and calm. Keitaro quickly turned back his focus to the colonel.

"Some of you here are the most intelligent minds in your prefecture. Some of you are the strongest. Others show...," The colonel paused and Keitaro thought he looked at him straight in the eye, "some talent that is of interest to the military and of use in your mission."

The commanding officer walked to the center LCD screen. On it was a map of what appeared to be the current military situation. The blue blocks, which appeared to be the South's forces, were stationed near the border and the blocks that were not at the border were moving towards it. The red blocks, which were supposed to be the North's, were moving towards the border and the blocks out at sea that were supposed to be ships were on constant patrols. The map zoomed in onto a part of the border, the ambiguous blocks now became labeled groups, detailing which was which. Now, Keitaro could see various bridges and walls, connecting and separating the North from the South at the same time.

"Your mission will be to destroy bridges like these, to destroy both low and high priority enemy buildings, and to direct missiles and bombs from airplanes to their specific targets. This will, of course, require more intense and specific training than you have received in the past."

Keitaro shivered at the thought of his past training. Although it wasn't all that hard after all the work he had done in Hinata Sou, it was the part of breaking down the soldier to follow orders and to kill when ordered to that really scared him. Keitaro loved life, people, everything, he didn't want to destroy it.

"You must become the sword of the Republic of Japan. You will be thrust into the enemy's chest, and then cause pain to the enemy. You will make the enemy's blood come gushing out in liters. You can be considered the pride of the Republic of Japan, and you will be the most decorated soldiers at the war's end. You all will be immortal heroes to millions."

Keitaro's face drained of blood. He didn't want any part of this, but he knew if he dropped out, he would be tried and killed as a traitor to the Republic.

"My name is Colonel Kitagawa, and I will be your commanding officer for the time being. Do not expect any drinks or food to be served on this flight. You will be expected to finish your intense training in 2 weeks. No questions will be taken, all the information that you need to know will be provided later this evening. You will not bepermanently staying on this base, you will be transported shortly to your training grounds. Assemble at the marching grounds in 2 rows. Dismissed."

The colonel walked out of the room. Everybody sitting down looked at each other. They weren't sure what to do. Except one man.

A tall and intimidating man rose up and commanded, "Get up, we're reporting to the marching grounds."

Keitaro and the other people stood up and followed the man out of the building and walked quickly to the marching grounds. While en route, Keitaro took a bit of time to study the group. There were 18 men, including Keitaro, but this group was anything but the same. One man had a slight limp and it was apparent that he had a prothestitic leg. Another was as skinny and pale as Keitaro, with glasses possibly thicker than his own. The tall and intimidating man that led the group out of the building seemed to be the de facto leader, he looked fit, healthy, and looked like he knew what he was doing. Keitaro made a mental note to himself that he should never aggravate this man, although it didn't really matter since Keitaro made a note to himself not to aggravate any man that would be able toseverely beat him up.

Every man carried his own bag, stuffed with his own belongings. Some were small and some we large, nothing protruded enough to seem like there was anything in the bag besides clothes. But Keitaro knew it was customary to surround things in your bag with your clothes (especially when its fragile or illegal). Most of those who slung the bag over his shoulder were strong looking while those who just dragged their bag were less bulky, but seemingly more intelligent.

Keitaro didn't have enough time to scrutinize everybody before the group reached the marching grounds. The 18 men assembled in 2 rows of 9 men in the center of the marching grounds. They were in the 'at ease' position. All of them waiting, but not knowing what they were waiting for.

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_Author's Notes:_ Well, as you can see, Keitaro already served in the military before. This is something like South Korea's program where there is a compulsory draft for all males aged 18 years and they have to serve x amount of time in the military. After that they can go to college/university and continue a normal life.

Right now, this situation is similar to the situation of the Korean peninsula right now, the only difference is that there is a war (as in fighting, shooting, bombing, etc.) going on. Like the ending of _Kumo__ no Mukou_, war breaks out. The only difference is that most of Hokkaido (Edo) isn't eaten up by a tear in the time space continuum, and the border is on the Northern part of Honshu at something like the 40th parallel.

The North (The Democratic People's Republic of Japan DPRJ) is a communistic satellite of the Soviet Union (sound familiar?) while the South is the Republic of Japan (RoJ) which its government is basically a puppet of the United States. Both sides are corrupt, violent, and unstable. And as a politician, you can only trust yourself.

That's pretty much the summary that I'm going to give now, if you want anything cleared up or answered, post your question in a review!


	2. At Hinata Sou

DISCLAIMER: I don't own _Love Hina_ nor _The Place Promised in Our Early Days_. These are owned by Ken Akamatsu and Makoto Shinkai, respectively. I only own most of my internal organs that I possess.

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_Kumo no Mukou, Keitaro  
By SK-superpower  
  
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_Author's Note: _This chapter was slow to come out, and I'm still not totally liking how it is right now, so I've decided to bring this out and start working on the third chapter and I'll revise this one later. Enjoy!

Please read and review!

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Keitaro heard something shoot up in the distance. It sounded like a child's rocket, but it could be anything.

When he opened his eyes, night suddenly became day.

He looked towards the source of the light. '_Probably just an enemy flare..._' he concluded after staring at the man-made shooting star for a few seconds. There was a sudden increase in machine-gun fire noise in the distance.

_ratatta tat tat tttaatatatat tatat ata ttatatata atataa_

pow pow pow pow

He could hear the exchange of rapid machine gun fire and a semi-automatic rifle. Keitaro could just imagine the mens' scream of pain and horror when hit by the bullets in his little foxhole. He tried to shake off the feeling, but the imagery came back again and again. It was a forever haunting memory inside his head, slow to go away, quick to come back and scare him half to death. If it wasn't the Soviet's bullets that killed him, it would be the psychological damage.

He curled up int a ball to keep as warm as possible and continued to think about the past, good times and bad.

\\Continued Flashback Sequence/

The men stood at the grounds and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

They were there for about 2 hours before some men started to shift around. The day was hot, humid, and sweaty in their uniforms. Some sat down on their bags, looking around for any signs of the colonel or any high-ranking brass coming their way.

One man decided to leave, the man looked of a less pleasant disposition, Keitaro decided to name him "Grumpy" for the time being. Grumpy said, "Damn it. Nobody's coming, and they probably will never come. I'm leaving." He gathered up his things and started to walk off.

The person that Keitaro saw that could be considered the "leader" (or more so, the "intimidator") of the group replied, "What's more likely is that they are testing our patience and loyalty. I highly suggest that you come back, or you'll most likely get shot."

Grump took one look at the "leader" and decided it was best to stay. With nothing to do, he just grumbled to himself the whole time.

Keitaro had to stifle a laugh.

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The rain started out as a few drops. Nothing more than a light drizzle.

But the rain kept coming.

The men just stood there, braving the rain out in the open. Desperatly hoping that somebody would come get them, escort them to their new barracks, and apologize to them furiously.

Then, lights could be seen. From the sky, it was a helicopter that descended. A large one, enough to carry all 18 men and equipment, Keitaro thought it looked more or less like a banana.

'_Su..._', he thought sadly. He shook his head, to try to make it less wet, and to get rid of past memories. Keitaro had a job now, he couldn't let anything interfere with it because the better he did his job, the more likely he could go back home.

The helicopter's speakers boomed out, "513th Demolition Group, board helicopter immediately."

Doing as told, the men gathered their belongings and ran towards the helicopter. The helicopter's back door dropped open and the men scrambled in to get away from the rain.

Inside the helicopter, it was rather roomy. There were two rows of seats lined on the sides of the helicopter, while up at the front was the control area. The men sat down and waited.

Keitaro looked to his left and right, on his left was a lanky man that looked like Seta, only without glasses. On his right was a man who had a scar along the side of his left jaw, the man's eyes were staring out into space, slightly unfocused. The man on Keitaro's right leaned back and closed his eyes, as if to take a nap from reality.

'_If I could only escape from reality..._' thought Keitaro.

Keitaro looked at the door and saw that it started to close.

He asked, "Uh, Pilot-san, where are we heading to?"

"I am unable to disclose that information at this moment. All that I can say is that you're just being transported to your training camp right now."

Keitaro and some other men exchanged glances. He just noticed that there weren't any windows in the helicopter, save the windshield. But the pilot closed the door, sealing off the cockpit from the cabin. Now, the men inside were getting a bit nervous and agitated. Most thoughts in the cabin correlated to '_Where the hell am I going?_'

In fact, these men were headed for a training island, artificially created, about 100 kilometers off of the coast of Okinawa. It wasn't state-of-the-art, but rather a quaint island that had some wooden barracks and a small arsenal for training weapons. At a first glance, it looked just like any other special forces training island, and it was. It was the people who were to populate the island that were to make it one of the most infamous locations of the whole war.

It was just too bad that Keitaro didn't know that.

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Back at Hinata Sou, there was a tense atmosphere. What Keitaro first did when he got to camp, he usually begged the officer in charge to make a phone call to his relatives to make sure that he was still alive, it usually worked. But now, the girls were worried that something had gone wrong, that Keitaro wouldn't be coming back. Most of them expected to see a man to come up the stairs with a letter stating Keitaro's death. Even Su was worried.

All of the girls, save Shinobu in the kitchen, were gathered around the telephone, waiting for Keitaro's call. So far, no luck at all. Nobody was allowed outside in the streets due to a nation-wide curfew set by the government in order to to guard against the enemy. The true irony was that the enemy were their own brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, cousins, and family. It was a very sad time to see such division among one country, nothing like it had ever happened before.

"Everybody! I finished dinner!" Shinobu called out. She was the hardest hit by Keitaro's leave. All that she could think of the hours after were images of Keitaro's dead body, shredded by bullets or artillery fragments. She just couldn't shake off the feeling, and she probably never will.

"We're coming Shinobu." a tired Motoko said. Although her hard exterior didn't show it, her eyes were riddled with worry that something had happened to Keitaro.

The girls in the lobby walked to the kitchen, there was an aura of gloom and despair in the air, as with most wartime situations.

When the girls got to the kitchen, there was a long whistling sound in the air.

"Kitsune, you better not be faking those noises again. You scared us out of our wits the last time you did that."

"No, I swear, it wasn't me!"

A loud explosion outside told the girls what it was. Rocket artillery being fired from behind the border, it actually managed to get to the Hinata Prefecture. Usually, Soviet tactics were to fire off as many shells before the enemy could lift a finger, so the girls expected to recieve a large welcoming to war very soon.

"EVERYBODY! INTO THE SHELTER!" Haruka screamed.

The girls hurried into the underground shelter of Hinata Sou, just when the full artillery barrage came in. The rockets were a terrifying site, although they did not carry any NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) warheads, the explosions from the charges rocked the very foundations of Hinata Sou. On a side note, they did not do as much damage that Naru and Motoko did on a bad day.

It was a short barrage, lasting only 6 minutes. But after the damage was done, it looked as if the town had been destroyed by an invading army. Thankfully, none of the Hinata girls were hurt, but they weren't able to do anything about the damages, as construction workers had already been moved North to prepare for the war that had started.

"Hinata Sou looks totaled." Kitsune said as she stated the obvious.

"Eto, we won't be able to live here anymore...it looks as if the roof will cave in." Naru added.

Part of the roof, promptly on cue, caved in.

"Ano..."

"Maybe we should go to Okinawa to Mutsumi's house?"

"Sounds like a good idea!"

"Let's go!"

Su pressed a button on a remote control that she saved from the rubble, and a giant mecha-Tama flew out of the partially destroyed Hinata Sou. The girls then boarded and were on a one-way flight to Okinawa, out of enemy rocket's reach, and safe from an enemy invasion. A phone rang in Hinata Sou, but nobody was there to answer it.

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Questions for SK-superpower:

From **Ominae**: "This sounds like the plot in Ring of Red. Wonder if AFW (Armored Fighting Walkers) will be involved here?"

Unfortunately, I haven't played Ring of Red yet, but it sounds really good, so I'll try it out later. AFW or mechas will not play a role in this storyline. All weapons here will be actual weapons used in the real world.

From **Bananabomb**: "what are your nation?"

I am from the United States of America and of Chinese/Korean heritage.

"(kill the american fuckers)"

Oh, um. I'm Saudi Arabian.


End file.
